Return to home A medieval country in western Europe
extending along the North Sea from the Strait of Dover to Schledt
River. Now part of Belgium, France and Netherlands.
(WUD, 1994, p.539)1127
Mar 2, Charles the Good, Count of Flanders, was
murdered. Flemish towns (Ghent, Bruges and Ypres) forced the
selection of Thierry of Alsace as the new count despite Louis VI’s
choice of the son of Normandy’s Robert Curthose.
(PCh, 1992, p.92)(SC, 3/2/02)

1430s Jan van Eyck painted 2
works titled “St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata." For a time he was
considered the inventor of oil painting, but later lost that
distinction. He is still regarded as the inventor of a type of
landscape painting with figures in realistic scale that influenced
the entire Northern school of painting. Only 9 signed and dated
works survive. In 2001 painter David Hockney and physicist Charles
Falco alleged that Eyck and other artists of this period began using
optical devices to project pictures and produce detailed tracings.
(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)(SFC, 1/5/01, p.C9)

c1450-1516 Hieronymus Bosch, painter was born.
Hieronymous van Aken was born in the small Dutch Brabant city of
‘s-Hertogenbosch in Flanders.
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.172)(WSJ, 8/25/98,
p.A12)(WSJ, 10/11/01, p.A19)

1464 Jun 18, Roger Van Der
Weyden (b.1400), Flemish painter, died. He had mastered the new
technique of oil painting and served as the official painter to the
city of Brussels.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogier_van_der_Weyden)(Econ, 10/3/09,
p.107)

1523 Jul 1, Hendrik Voes,
Flemish priest, church reformer, was burned at stake along with John
of Esschen (Jan van Essen), Flemish priest, church reformer. The 2
monks were executed in Brussels for refusing to recant their
Lutheran beliefs.
(http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Essen)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.94)

1558 Pieter Breughel the Elder
created his painting “Ice skating Before the Gate of Saint George."
He also did “Ira," a depiction of anger.
(WSJ, 10/1/01, p.A22)

1560 Nicolas Gombert (b.~1495),
Flemish composer, died about this time. He was one of the most
famous and influential composers between Josquin Desprez and
Palestrina, and best represents the fully-developed, complex
polyphonic style of this period in music history.
(SFC, 6/9/09,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Gombert)

1561 Simon Bening, Flemish
painter, died. He was known as the best illuminator of his time.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.62)

1564 Oct 15, Andreas Vesalius
(b.1514), Flemish anatomist, died. Andreas Vesalius, the father of
modern anatomy, was forced by the Inquisition to make a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land. He disappeared during the voyage. In 1543 he
authored of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De
humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body).
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Vesalius)

1568 Jun 4, Lamoraal, Count
Egmont, prince of Gavere, was beheaded in Brussels for opposition to
the Spanish Inquisition. He became a heroic figure in Goethe's play
and Beethoven's musical setting. Philips van Montmorency comte
d'Horn, admiral, statesman, was also beheaded along with 18 other
leaders of the Flemish opposition.
(PCh, 1992, p.195)(MC, 6/5/02)

1568-1625 Jan Breughel, the Elder, a son of Pieter
Breughel, painted the "teeming textures of normal existence."
(WSJ, 2/18/00, p.W12)

1568 Leaders of the Flemish
opposition to the Spanish Inquisition were beheaded as traitors in
Brussels.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)

1569 Gerhardus Mercator
(1512-1594), Flemish geographer, produced his "Map of the World" for
the use of navigators on the projection that bears his name to this
day. He was the first to use the term "atlas" for a collection of
maps. In 2004 Andrew Taylor authored “The World of Gerard Mercator."
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(WSJ, 11/5/04, p.W9)

1570-1612 The first modern atlas, Theatrum orbis
terrarum, was published by Abraham Ortelius of Amsterdam in 1570.
The Flemish mapmaker compiled it using the best maps available and
issued dozens of editions in this period. [see 1602]
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(WSJ,11/24/95, p.B-8)

1577 Jun 28, Pietro Paul Rubens
(d.1640), Flemish painter, was born in Germany, the child of
protestants exiled from Antwerp. His work included "Helene Fourment"
and "The Abduction of the Daughters of Leucippus."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.1250)(HN, 6/28/01)
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.81)

1591 Flemish engraver Theodor
de Bry published “A Brief Narration of Those Things Which Befell the
French in the Province of Florida" in Latin and Germany editions. It
focused on the 1564-1565 French settlement of Fort Caroline. The
book included 42 engravings said to be based on water color
paintings by Jacques de Moyne de Morgues (d.1588), who had
accompanied the French expedition. Moyne also provided a narrative
and a map. In 1946 Stefan Lorant translated Moyne’s text into
English and reproduced his engravings and map in “The New World."
(Arch, 5/05, p.28)

1594 Jun 14, Orlando di Lasso
(b.~1532), Franco-Flemish composer, died in Munich. He was the
most famous and influential musician in Europe at the end of the
16th century. Along with Palestrina (of the Roman School), he is
considered to be the chief representative of the mature polyphonic
style of the Franco-Flemish School.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlande_de_Lassus)

1594 Dec 2, Gerardus Mercator
(82), Flemish philosopher and cartographer, died. Mercator's dream
was to publish a volume of maps, which would also give a history of
the world since creation. Called the 'Atlas', the first section came
out in 1569. It contained a chronology from creation to 1568.
(www.navis.gr/men/mercator.htm)

1596 Abraham Ortelius, Flemish
mapmaker, recorded his belief that the continents had not always
been fixed in their positions.
(NH, 10/02, p.79)

1602 An atlas made by the
Flemish mapmaker Abraham Ortelius, bound in vellum with text in
Spanish, was one of dozens issued between 1570 and 1612. It is
available in 1995 for $160,000 from New York dealer W.G. Arader III.
(WSJ, 11/24/95, p.B-8)

1605 Apr 8, Louis de Vadder,
Flemish painter, was born.
(MC, 4/8/02)

1605 The painting "Death of
Samson" was attributed to Peter Paul Rubens, but may have been done
by a student and completed as late as 1650. The work was later
purchased by the Getty Museum for $6 million through Italian art
dealers from the Corsini family and contested whether or not it was
a national treasure.
(WSJ, 4/2/99, p.W12)

1626 Apr 5, Jan van Kessel
(d.1679), Flemish painter, was born. He was the grandson of Jan
Breughel. He is known for his small paintings on copper and wood.
His “Study of Butterflies, Spiders, Lizards, a Beetle, an Ant, a
Grasshopper and Other Insects" sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2000
for $1,655,750.
(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.W10)(MC, 4/5/02)

1629 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish
painter, created an allegorical design depicting “Honor and Virtue."
The painting was commissioned in this year and in 1998 was part of
the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein. A separate small oil
sketch for the painting was first made and made public in 1998.
Rubens also made a copy of Titian’s “The Rape of Europa," and he
painted the portrait of “Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel."
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 3/9/98, p.A16)

1714 Mar 6, the Treaty of
Rastatt ended the war between Austria and Spain. It complemented the
Treaty of Utrecht, which had, the previous year, ended hostilities
with Britain and the Dutch Republic. The Spanish Netherlands became
the Austrian Netherlands, and Spain gave up her possession in Italy,
Luxembourg and Flanders. A third treaty, the Treaty of Baden (Sep 7,
1714), was required to end the hostilities between France and the
Holy Roman Empire.
(PCh, ed. 1992,
p.279)(http://tinyurl.com/b8uxbje)

1759-1840 Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Flemish-born
painter. He was one of the most celebrated flower painters and
worked under the patronage of Empress Josephine Bonaparte. His 169
stipple engravings “Les Rose" were made in Paris between 1817-1824.
(2000 Taschen Calendar)

1793-1795 The British engaged in the ill-fated
Flanders Campaign.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.42)

1865 May 9, August de Boeck
(d.1937), Flemish composer, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_de_Boeck)

1917 Jul 11, The assault on
Flanders began and lasted to Nov 10, for a total gain of four miles
and the occupation of Passendaele. [see Nov 10]
(AM, 7/04, p.9)

1917 Aug 14, The Chinese
Parliament declared war on the Central Powers, Germany and Austria,
during World War I. Some 100,000 Chinese laborers ended up serving
near the front lines in Flanders as the “Chinese Labor Corps," which
endured military discipline under British officers. Hundreds died in
the influenza that swept post-war Europe and the last were shipped
home in 1920.
(AP, 8/14/97)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.41)

1917 Nov 10, The assault on
Flanders, begun July 11, finally ground to a halt. The British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) had suffered losses of 300,000 men and
German losses were around 200,000--for a total gain of four miles
and the occupation of Passchendaele. The battle was later described
by Edwin Campion Vaughan in “Some Desperate Glory" (1981).
(HN, 6/7/98)(HNQ, 11/2/98)(WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P12)